Mixed Up"
by scylla
Summary: This is my first fic here, by the way. Anyway, Hermione, Ron and Harry have drifted apart. It's now their Sixth Year. Hermione's an aspiring Head Girl and dating Seamus Finnigan. What happens when she meets Ron in the library at midnight? R/R ^.^
1. Default Chapter

"D'you want to snog, 'Mione?" Seamus Finnigan asked hopefully from a darksome corner of the Common Room.  
  
Hermione shot him a rather poisonous glare. "Snogging is reprehensible conduct for a prefect, Seamus," she said in a sniffy voice.  
  
"But you're my witch," he insisted sulkily.  
  
"Actually, I'm not. I'm my own, er, witch. Furthermore, I'm a prefect. Prefects cannot be caught in situations like that. Can you say 'awkward?'"  
  
Seamus didn't respond. Hermione watched with little emotion as he trudged up to his own Common Room. "Aren't you being a little tough on Seamus?" said a voice from her right.  
  
"Harry! Were you eavesdropping?"  
  
"No. Actually, I was just sitting on this chair and happened to overhear your conversation. Can you say 'frigid?'"  
  
"Can you say 'mortifying?'" she mumbled in a muffled voice. She had buried her face in her hands. "I have to go on my rounds. Go to bed, Harry."  
  
"Well, good-night, then. I'll have to go up there and comfort poor, cold and lonely Seamus..." He went red. "You best not have your mind in the gutter," he added with a glare.  
  
Hermione dissolved into giggles. "Good night, Harry."  
  
Hermione snatched up her wand and her knapsack before clambering out of the portrait hole and out for her nightly rounds, part of a prefect's allotted duties. 'An aspiring Head Girl just can't go about snogging boys in her own Common Room,' she told herself as she wandered the corridors by wandlight, 'even if he is her boyfriend.' She directed her beam at the statue of Quinlan the Quirky. 'Cho Chang is the Head Girl this year...I'm certainly better grade-wise than she is. But to be caught in such a situation...Really, what was Seamus thinking?'  
  
Hermione's bemused thoughts were interrupted as she passed the library. She backtracked quickly. A dim light was coming from somewhere within, and she could hear movement. She grinned. Hermione's favorite part of being a prefect (other than the wicked bathroom) was the thrilling hunt and the eventual kill of an offender.  
  
She quietly slid open the door to the library and peered distrustfully in. Hermione crept in haltingly, looking around. "Who's in here?" she said in her best prefect-voice. She had to stop herself from adding, "Come out with your hands up!" Hermione stifled a giggle.  
  
"Hermione?"  
  
"Ron Weasley! What on earth are you doing in here?" She placed her hands on her hips and glared at the spot from whence his voice had come. (A/N: LOL. I like that word. whencewhencewhencewhence o.O)  
  
He rose guiltily from behind a column of papers and books. "Sorry."  
  
"Sorry? Sorry? Do you realize the brevity of your offense? You have just broken - mutilated - one of Hogwarts most crucial rules! 'No student is permitted out of his or her Common Room after midnight!'"  
  
Ron opened his mouth in protest, "But -"  
  
Hermione cut him off. "Punishment must be enforced," she said.  
  
Ron went bright red. "I'm your friend!" he said angrily.  
  
"This act of blatant rule-breaking cannot be ignored because we're friends," she replied irritably. Maybe the OLD Hermione would have bent under Ron's plea...Hermione shook her head firmly, making Ron stare. Since the end of Fifth Year, Ron and Harry had been going out of their way to exclude her from dozens of things...from dozens of conversations and investigations and excursions. She felt like she didn't even know them any more. Hermione's eyes welled up with tears. "I CAN'T BEND THE RULES FOR YOU!" she shouted, a bit louder than she had intended. "And we're NOT friends."  
  
Ron looked at her, stunned. "What d'you mean?"  
  
"Have you gone retarded, Ron? Can't you understand common English? We're not friends. You think you can just casually leave me out of everything and I won't notice? I'm not blind, Ron. I know that you and Harry talk without me, that you go down to Hagrid's without me...you do all sorts of things without me. Just because - well, I don't know why, but it's bloody annoying and it hurts and I wouldn'tve -" But she was cut off in midsentence when Ron kissed her.  
  
*MARS*  
  
Please R/R 


	2. Chapter Two

This has one (possibly two) words of description. Let me warn you. CORN. FLUFF.  
  
There ya go. I was high on sugar/acid (jk...just sugar) at the time that I wrote this, so please don't drown in the sappiness and unreality of it all. ^.^ Thanks.  
  
"Mixed Up" Part Two  
  
Hermione's first coherent thought was something along the lines of, "Wow, this is worth losing all chances of becoming Head Girl." The next was more along the lines of, "What am I doing?!"  
  
"Ron, geroff me!" she snarled into his lips before pushing him bodily off of her. "What do you think you're doing?!"  
  
She was trying unsuccessfully to shake off her emotions.  
  
Ron was just staring, his eyes rather glazed looking. "I - I was kissing you," he whispered finally.  
  
"*That* was really observant of you, Ron," she said sarcastically.  
  
Red patches were appearing in Ron's freckled cheeks. "Hey -" he began.  
  
"Ron, I have a boyfriend, in case you've forgotten. Or maybe you never noticed. But I do."  
  
Ron just looked at her, as if he didn't quite understand. "Seamus?"  
  
"Yes, Ron. Seamus Finnigan."  
  
"Of course I knew that," he mumbled. "Everyone knows."  
  
"I just blew Seamus off for my prefect duties. You know what? He wanted to SNOG! You know what? I'm snogging anyway!" Hermione appeared to have lost her mind.  
  
"Calm down," Ron said soothingly, ever aware of her proximity. "I'm sorry."  
  
Hermione stared at him, tears in her eyes. "Why do you do this to me?" she demanded weakly. "You just leave me out of it...I think that our friendship's over...that I've lost you forever...and then I get this." She gestured at him before bringing her hand to softly touch her lips. "I always thought you had heart, Ron." Tears were now trailing down her cheeks. "I had the brains...Harry had the glamour and the bravery and the fame...but you, Ron Weasley, I thought you had heart. And that was more important than all of the others combined." Her face hardened. "But you don't."  
  
Ron was left speechless. He barely managed, "Hermione...I...I...why do you have to be such a numskull?" All of his energy appeared to have left him, and he dropped lifelessly into a chair.  
  
Hermione touched her forehead. "I'm just all mixed up," she said hopelessly.  
  
"Good description of how I'm feeling. 'Mixed up' just about sums it up." His voice was bitter. "Do you remember near the end of Fifth Year, Hermione?"  
  
"Of course I remember. That was when the two of you began to ignore me completely."  
  
"D'you remember, then, when I gave you that letter?"  
  
Hermione just stared at him, confused. "What letter? What are you talking about?"  
  
"You know. Let me quote it a bit for you: 'I've always loved you, even when I tried to convince myself that I didn't, that I couldn't. I think you're the most beautiful person, both inside and out, on earth...'"  
  
Hermione's face lit up, then fell. "Seamus wrote me that..." she began in a bemused voice. "D-didn't he?" Ron's look answered for her. "B-but...I don't get it..." She trailed off. "You must be lying, Ron," she accused.  
  
Ron merely stared. "Let me tell you the whole thing. Keep your comments till I'm finished." He took a deep breath and his voice cracked slightly as he spoke. "Harry and I spent six weeks composing that two page letter. I'd never worked so hard on something before, unless you count looking for Nicolas Flamel in our First Year. I tried to make it count. I wanted it to mean something to you...I wanted you to understand. I'd been hiding all that fluffy stuff from you since the Yule Ball. I *was* jealous of Viktor Krum. Don't you remember that line in the poem? How could you think Seamus wrote something like that? Anyway, I tried to phrase everything perfectly...to impress you or something, I guess. Some of the lines were really naff, but Harry was able to smooth out the edges for me. When we finally quilled the last word, I folded it up in an envelope and sealed it. I was trying to work up the courage to actually give it to you. Harry suggested that I use a school owl to deliver it at breakfast the next morning. So that's what I did.  
  
"After you received it I was terrified. I ran off to the library. You know, I'd wait for you to find me. To tell me what you thought. I waited. And I waited. And I waited. By the time it was midnight, I had lost hope. You know how it is? I trudged up the Common Room. Hey, can you guess what I saw?" He paused, to let the words sink in. "You and Seamus were going at in the floor in front of the fire." He broke off; his voice had risen several octaves.  
  
Hermione wanted to cry. Worse than cry. She wanted to use the Avada Kedavra curse for the first time in her life. On herself. She stared at Ron, wanting to say something, wanting to slap him. She wanted to do something. Anything to make all of these mixed up emotions to leave off of her. So, she did the first thing she could think of. Hermione reached out, without warning, and kissed Ron. He started in surprise, but Hermione pressed her lips to his, trying to block out all the thoughts that were playing Follow the Leader in her brain.  
  
Ron mumbled something indistinguishable inside her mouth, which was rather funny when you thought about it. Maybe he was suffocating. After all, she was pressing his lips to hers rather hard. With that, Hermione snorted and broke the kiss, squealing with laughter.  
  
"Are you okay?" he asked, looking slightly hurt and euphoric at the same time.  
  
She shook her head wordlessly, still convulsing with giggles. "It's just - it's just -" Hermione trailed off into a more laughter. Then, feeling strangely blissful, she caught Ron into a hug. She had to strain to reach his shoulders, but the hug was really nice. His overlarge hands fumbled in her hair. She looked up at him, and he was blushing beet red. Hermione suddenly remembered the letter Ron had written almost two years before, with full clarity.  
  
"Ron, I was lying to you before. You *do* have heart."  
  
****  
  
THE END (I know. Sugary Sweet.) ^.^ 


End file.
